About 1,500 persons have taken part in the festivities on the occasion of the 101st anniversary of the October revolution. The event lasted for about 20 minutes.
The participants, mainly district administration officials, members of the Trade Union Federation of Belarus and the Communist Party, gathered together near the monument to Vladimir Lenin in Independence Square. Some of them were holding portraits of Lenin and Stalin and laying flowers to the monument.
A day earlier, president Alyaksandr Lukashenka made a comment on the celebration. According to him, October Revolution Day ‘celebrates peace and human rights’.
He stressed that the Belarusian authorities did not consider those events coup, but revolution.
“Certain people are now saying in Russia are trying to erase and rewrite everything. That is why, perhaps, we made a wise decision some time ago to leave this holiday and do not throw stones at history,” state-run news agency BelTA quotes him.
Belarus is the only post-Soviet country where November, 7 is a public holiday.
- Lenin Still Alive: Celebration of 100th anniversary of ‘Great October Revolution’ in Minsk
- Centenary: Belarus Communists commemorating Red October (photos)
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